Long distance dispersal, overland migration and extinction in the shaping of tropical African floras

Abstract

The distribution, ecology, probable modes of dispersal and taxonomic relationships of five species of Chrysobalanaceae and one of Meliaceae and Hernandiaceae are summarized. Most of these show trans-oceanic disjunctions and, in Africa, behave as ecological and chorological transgressors; morphologically they are variable. The potential importance of transgressors in the origin of new species and of evolutionary innovations, and in the interpretation of disjunctions is discussed.